2017 News

The CPT visits Bulgaria

A delegation of the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) carried out a periodic visit to Bulgaria from 25 September to 6 October 2017. It was the Committee's seventh periodic visit to this country.

10/10/2017

Diminuer la taille du texte

Augmenter la taille du texte

Imprimer la page

Imprimer en PDF

The main objective of the visit was to review the measures taken by the Bulgarian authorities in response to the recommendations made by the Committee after previous visits and after the Public Statement issued by the CPT in 2015. In this connection, particular attention was paid to the treatment and conditions of detention of persons in police custody and penitentiary establishments. The delegation also examined the treatment, conditions and legal safeguards offered to psychiatric patients, residents of social care institutions, as well as immigration detainees.

In the course of the visit, the delegation had consultations with Tsetska Tsatcheva, Minister of Justice, Nikolay Prodanov, Deputy Minister of Justice, Krassimir Tsipov, Deputy Minister of the Interior, Rositsa Dimitrova, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Svetlana Yordanova, Deputy Minister of Health, as well as with senior officials from the Ministries of Justice, the Interior, Health, Labour and Social Policy, and the Prosecutor General’s Office. In addition, talks were held with the Ombudsperson Maya Manolova. The delegation also met representatives of non-governmental and international organisations active in areas of concern to the CPT.

At the end of the visit, the delegation presented its preliminary observations to the Bulgarian authorities.

The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT:

Mykola Gnatovskyy, President of the CPT (Head of delegation)

James McManus

Ilvija Pūce

Davor Strinović

Marika Väli

Elisabetta Zamparutti.

They were supported by Borys Wódz (Head of Division) and Dalia Žukauskienė of the CPT’s Secretariat, and assisted by an expert Clive Meux, forensic psychiatrist from Oxford, United Kingdom.

The delegation visited the following places of deprivation of liberty: